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Fable Fanon:Setting up a role-playing game
This guide gives a brief overview on how to set up and play a role-playing game, or roleplay, on Fable Fanon. You may wish to have this open in a separate tab in your browser to easily refer back to it. If you have any questions, or wish for additions to the guide, please leave a message on the guide's talk page. Guide version: 1.0 ;More Fable Fanon Guides: :Creating your own fan-fiction :Infobox how-to Play-by-Post Role-playing In play-by-post role-playing, a number of different contributors, the "players", interact with each other to create a collaborative story by posting as their own character. The aim is to describe what the charcter does or what they say. The story is led and directed by the creator of the roleplay, known as the "gamemaster", or GM. The GM sets the scene, narrates and directs the story, and can take the role of a character as well if they choose to. For more information on play-by-post role-playing in general, please see Wikipedia. The remainder of this guide will detail how to set up and play a roleplay here on Fable Fanon, and give some guidelines for good roleplay practice. Role-playing on Fable Fanon Roleplays (RPs) on Fable Fanon are created in the . The gamemaster sets up a blog post with the basic details of the roleplay, and the players post as their characters in the Comments section. You may also occasionally find legitimate blog posts in the blogspace; these are identified by a Blog post message at the top of them. Creating and Managing a Roleplay: A Guide for Gamemasters The Gamemaster is the organiser, arbitrator and moderator of a role-playing game. It is your job to manage the players and control the direction of the roleplay by weaving together the stories of each of the player's characters. You will also be in control of the non-player aspects of the game, including major story events, the activities of any NPCs, and creating the environments in which the players interact. Setup To begin the process of creating a roleplay, action=edit&preload=Template:NewPage_Roleplay&useeditor=mediawiki}} click here. You can also use the Create new roleplay button under the Roleplays tab of your , and select Roleplay from the Blogspace Preloadable Templates. Once you have entered the Title of your roleplay, you should see a page which begins: *If not, you will need to click on the Roleplay button in Blogspace Preloadable Templates and enter the Title again. You can now fill in some information about your roleplay in the infobox. Note that the parameters |name = , |gamemaster = , |roleplay = , |details = , and |discussion = are filled in automatically and should not be edited. *If you have an image to add, see Adding Images, later in this guide. *For full details on all the parameters used in this infobox, see the Infobox how-to. Continue to fill in the page as directed, with an introduction to your roleplay, a brief background to the story, and rules for your roleplay. You can also add some guidelines for character creation. Once the page is complete, click Preview to see how it will be presented, then Publish to save it to the wiki. Note that the roleplay is "Open" as soon as you publish the page; see Opening/Closing the Roleplay for details on how to change this. Details Page You will likely want to add more details about your roleplay than you were able to on the blogspace page. For this, you will need to create a Details page in the main content space. # In the Roleplay Infobox, under the Management section, click Create Details page. # At the top of the page, replace the code with your username. # Add sections below this to give more background story and any other details you like to your roleplay setting. New sections are added with double-equals signs: Section Header See for general wiki editing tips. Once your Details page is complete, click Preview to see how it will be presented, then Publish to save it to the wiki. Discussion Page The Discussion page is a place for out-of-character discussions between the players, to prevent such messages being added to the roleplay iteself and interfering with the flow of the story. New players can post their character bios here for you to review and approve their addition to your RP. # In the Roleplay Infobox, under the Management section, click Create Discussion page. # At the top of the page, replace the code with your username. # Click Publish to save the page to the wiki. You can easily move between the Roleplay, Details and Discussion pages using the links in the Management section of the Roleplay Infobox. Categories You will want a place that lists every page relating to your roleplay. This is a . At the bottom of your roleplay pages is the Categories box, which should contain three entries. The middle one depends on which of your three roleplay pages you are on, and is Roleplaying for the Roleplay page, Roleplays A to Z for the Details page, or Discussions A to Z for the Discussion page. Gamemaster Category The first category is your username. This lists everything on the site created by you. If this is your first time here, you will need to create this category so that it can be found through the site listings. Click on your Gamemaster category, then click Create next to the category name. *If the Create a Page popup appears, choose Create a Blank Page. Copy and paste the text below into the blank box: Category:Gamemasters A to Z Click Save Page or Publish, then find your roleplay in the listings to return there. *If you already have a category on the site, but this is your first roleplay, visit your category page, click Add category at the bottom, and type Gamemasters A to Z. Press Enter when done, and remember to Save the changes. Roleplay Category The third category is the name of your roleplay. This will list everything relating to it. Click on your Roleplay category, then click Create on the page that appears. *If the Create a Page popup appears, choose Create a Blank Page. Copy and paste the text below into the blank box: Every page that you create about your roleplay can be added to the category by using the Add category button at the bottom of the pages. All pages that are created using the preloadable templates will automatically be added to the category. Story Elements You may like to flesh out your world to provide some background and immersion to the environments your players will be visiting. There are Preloadable Templates for characters, factions, enemies, items, and for three different types of location, that can be reached from Add a Page, found within the Contribute menu in the top-right corner. Enter your character, location, enemy, item or faction name in the initial text box, then select Layout Templates to reach the options. Select the one you would like to use, then fill in the infobox template parameters. See the Infobox how-to for details filling in infoboxes. *To attribute your elements to your roleplay, enter in the roleplay parameter. Opening/Closing the Roleplay There may be times when you need to close the roleplay. To do this, head to the main Roleplay page in the blogspace, and click on Edit. #In the infobox, change the status parameter from "open" to "closed". #Clear the check-mark in the Roleplay open box, above the Preview and Publish buttons. *To reopen the roleplay, change the status back to "open" and tick the Roleplay open box. Tips for Gamemastery *The roleplay is yours to control, but don't be afraid to ask for assistance if you need it. *All games need rules. There are a few guidelines for the whole of Fable Fanon (see below), but remember to add your own as well. *As this is Fable Fanon, all roleplays must take place within the Fable ethos. However, it's up to you how much of Lionhead's established canon is part of your setting, if any. *Be active. If you don't know whether you'll be able to regularly take part in a game, then it may be better not to create one. *You can add the names of the players in your roleplay, and their characters, using the player and char parameters in the Roleplay Infobox. Joining and Discussing a Roleplay: A Guide for Players Characters The first thing you will want to do as a player of a roleplay is decide on a character to play as. You may decide to take on the role of a character of your own creation, or one that exists in canon if the gamemaster allows. (Note that if you wish to use a character created by someone else, you must ask their permission first.) Please refer to the gamemaster's rules on Character Creation to see what sort of characters they are looking for. The easiest way to create your character for roleplay is to create a new Character page and fill in the details there. Important details for the roleplay are: *Name *Gender *Appearance *History/Background *Personality and Fighting Style Secondary details which may be required by the gamemaster, or which you may like to add to pad out your character if the gamemaster allows it: *Class and Skills *Items and Possessions *Faction To create a Character page, click the Add a Page button in the Contribute menu in the top-right corner, or useFormat=1}} click here. #Enter the name of your character in the text box. #Ensure that Layout Templates is selected, and click the Add a Page button at the bottom of the popup box. (If this option does not appear, skip to Step 3) #Select Character from the Preloadable Templates. #*If you receive a message Welcome back! We've restored some changes you had not published., click on Delete my changes and start a new edit Next you can fill in the infobox about your character. The steps to do so will depend on whether you are working in Visual or Source mode. The first time you create a page from the preloadable templates, you will be in Source mode. #Fill in the parameters of the Infobox character' as listed. Leave blank anything that cannot be filled in at this time; you can come back to do it later. #*If you have an image to add, see Adding Images, later in this guide. #Continue to fill in the page as directed. Delete anything that you will not be using, and feel free to add anything else you think is neccessary. Make sure to include the important details listed above, and all the information the gamemaster requires for your character to be included in the roleplay. See for general wiki editing tips. Once your page is complete, click Preview to see how it will be presented, then Publish to save it to the wiki. Contact the gamemaster through their roleplay's Discussion page and provide a link to your character page. They will then review your character and decide how they can be added to the roleplay. *Once your character has been approved by the gamemaster, you can enter (where RP name and GM name are replaced by the name of the roleplay and gamemaster, respectively) in the roleplay parameter of the character infobox. Discussion Every roleplay should have a dedicated Discussion page linked from the Management section of the infobox in the corner of the page. The Discussion page is where you go to post out-of-character messages, so that the flow of the story is not interrupted on the main roleplay page. Tips for Playing *Make sure you're happy with the rules set by the gamemaster, and do your best to keep to them. *Posts should be open-ended, to allow other players the opportunity to continue the story from where you left off. *Be active. If you don't know whether you'll be able to regularly take part in a game, then it may be better not to join. *Let people know if you need to leave the game. This is important so people know not to continue interacting with your character. The best way to do this would be to leave a message on the Discussion page. Guidelines for a Good Roleplay *Don't create overpowered characters. This is to stop the RP from becoming boring for everyone else. The GM may set their own rules on power, or may ask players to choose a "class" or "skill set" during Character Creation to avoid this. *Know the gamemaster's rules regarding roleplay style. **In 'Traditional' RPs, the GM creates the "events" and the players respond with "actions". Players of these RPs should not detail the outcome of their actions, and leave that for the gamemaster to decide. **In 'Collaborative' RPs, anyone can make minor events if they so choose. The GM still has overall control of course, and directs the course of the RP through major events. **Note that these two styles are not either/or, and most roleplays will likely sit somewhere between the two. **The story can also be moved forward through mutual agreement between players, probably OOC. *Keep out-of-character (OOC) discussions on the Discussion page (unless you are the GM or the GM has set a rule which overrides this guideline). **There is an template for GMs to post OOC messages within their RP comments if necessary. *Some GMs may direct the story to a situation which involves combat. **Either the GM determines the outcome of combat, the outcome is discussed OOC, or some sort of dice-roll with predetermined outcomes occurs. The GM may have directions relating to combat in their RP's rules. **No Power Playing – if you are in a situation where you are attacking another character, you should not give the outcome of your action. This guideline is a derivative of the 'open-ended posts' and 'no overpowered characters' guidelines, and while it can be overridden by a GM, it is set up to allow a character to respond to an attack on them. *Play by the rules. That's these guidelines and those that the GM sets. For the GM will have to set some rules that are specific to their RP setting.